Vital (2004) ***1/2

Vital (2004) does a valiant job of bridging the gap between director Shinya Tsukamoto's weirdest/most abrasive work and his more introspective/gentler fare. Indeed, this oneiric, corporeal, soul-searching drama seems to contain a little bit of everything that fans of the director gravitate toward—outré psychosexual behavior, a hodgepodge of cinematic/editing techniques (including some of his signature blue shots), deeply troubled characters, and meditations on existence.

Vital is the story of a man (Tadanobu Asano) regaining his memory after a bout of amnesia following a tragic accident, then coming to terms with grief, while doubling down on his medical studies and entering an unhealthily dependent relationship with a classmate that perhaps mirrors a previous one. Much is left ambiguous and there is plenty of striking and varied imagery to absorb. While it's certainly not the mind-bending sci-fi experience that is Tetsuo: The Iron Man (1989), nor quite as slow or restrained as 2018's Killing (review), it serves as a great melding of Tsukamoto's styles.

Shinya Tsukamoto Films Ranked